The bench was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an LLB student seeking postponement of the first semester examination by a month on the grounds that they did not get adequate time to prepare for the examination. (Picture for representation)

In a relief to first-year LLB students of the University of Mumbai, the Bombay high court on Wednesday gave them an option to skip the first semester examination beginning January 29, and instead answer the four papers along with second semester examination in April / May 2018.

The division bench of justice Bhushan Gavai and justice BP Colabawalla gave the option to first year LLB students primarily in view of the fact that the last round of admission to the three-year LLB course was held on December 22, 2017 and students admitted in the last rounds of admission would barely get a month to prepare for first semester examinations.

The bench was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an LLB student seeking postponement of the first semester examination by a month on the grounds that they did not get adequate time to prepare for the examination.

The bench refused to interfere with the examination schedule, noting that it will have a cascading effect on future examinations and would adversely affect the academic course.

It felt it necessary to give an option to the students - as has been given by the court to LLM students last week. "The ground reality cannot be ignored," said the bench in this regard. "It will not be practical to expect a student admitted on December 22 to complete a semester's study in one month and a week," it added.

The students opting out of the first semester examination starting January 29 will have to inform their respective colleges of their decision by January 29 itself "so that the university will appropriately prepare itself in advance for the second semester examination.